Category III AIFs are described as those “including hedge funds which trade with a view to make short term returns; which employs diverse or complex trading strategies and may employ leverage including through investment in listed or unlisted derivatives. These funds can be open ended or close ended.”

“This fund will allow the leverage option, which will increase investor returns,” said Balaji Raghavan, chief investment officer, real estate, IIFL AMC Ltd. “50% of investor money will be drawn down, along with 50% leverage from another institutional lender in the first 18-24 months, and investors will benefit from the spread on the borrowing. After that, once the next draw-down happens, the investors’ loans will be repaid,” he said.

Nilekani Invests $25M in KKR Realty Unit

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani has invested around $25 million through his family office Entrust in a real estate non-banking finance company (NBFC) unit of KKR India, as per DealStreetAsia report. With Nilekani's investment, the equity corpus of the NBFC unit has gone up to $250 million. It had earlier received bigger equity infusions from GIC of Singapore ($110 million) and US-based Townsend Group ($75 million).

KKR's real estate unit has been actively providing structured credit solutions to stressed but fundamentally strong companies in the past 18 months.Travelyaari Raises $3M in Bridge Round Led by GVFL

Online ticket booking platform Travelyaari which is run by Mantis Technologies Pvt Ltd, has raised $3 million in a bridge round of funding led by existing investor GVFL Ltd. Some other undisclosed investors also participated in the round and the deal got closed in March, as per DealStreetAsia report.

The company will use the money for its expansion and marketing plans. Around five years ago, GVFL had invested in Travelyaari through its SME Technology Venture Fund also. Travelyaari’s backend system, which is used by more than 1,600 operators for their day-to-day operations, supports annual transaction volume of more than Rs 3,000 crore. Bangalore-headquartered Travelyaari competes with the likes of redBus.in, Paytm and Abhibus.com. India’s Wings Travels Close to an Acquisition; Also Plans to Raise $15M

After acquired Bookmycab in March, travel and transport firm Wings Travels is close to acquiring another startup, this time in the staff transportation technology space. The company is also in the process of raising $15 million from global venture capital funds, however, the acquisition will be paid for through its internal accruals.

“The funding is likely to be closed in the next few weeks. The proceeds will be used within 90 days for our overseas setup, advertising, promotion and marketing,” the Pune-based company’s Founder Director, Arun Kharat told DealStreetAsia.

The company has already started operating its rent-a-cab app in Thailand and Myanmar. It soon plans to launch its services in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Mauritius, where it has acquired regulatory approvals.

Blume Ventures Hits 3rd Close of Its Second Venture Capital

Early stage investment firm Blume Ventures has hit a third close of its second venture capital and expects to complete the fundraising process in July. The firm has made more than 20 investments from the new fund in the last 13 months.

The firm had made first close in December, when it raised $30 million in a round led by Silicon Valley-based ICONIQ Capital, a global merchant bank for a group of influential families. The firm hit second close in January, when it raised $10 million from limited partners Kaiser Foundation and Dream Incubator. The third close has come after three months that brings its total corpus to more than $50 million and it is targeting $60 million for the second fund.

The Sebi-registered, India-domiciled fund, which will focus on the pre-Series A to Series A space, is looking to bet on startups utilising technology at their core, and spread across sectors, including consumer-focused mobile apps in media and telecom, ed-tech, health-tech and fin-tech, among others.

WaterBridge Ventures will primarily look to invest between Rs 75 lakh and Rs 3.5 crore in 12-15 ventures, and has a fund life cycle of 5-7 years, according to Kheterpal. Japanese Mobile Marketing Company Adways Buys POKKT’s Reward-based App Pocket Money

Japanese mobile marketing company Adways Inc has acquired Pocket Money, an incentivised Android app operated by India-based video advertising platform POKKT for an undisclosed amount. Pocket Money is a reward-based ad platform which helps app developers to acquire and engage customers in a targeted way. It claims to have an installed user base of over 6 million.

“We have built Pocket Money as a successful and profitable business in less than 18 months. However, we want to focus on our core business, POKKT Video Ads, a leading mobile video ad platform for games in India & SE Asia. Adways is a large global performance ad company and the right partner to scale the pocket money business significantly in India,” said Rohit Sharma, Founder & CEO, POKKT.

Paytm to Help Indian Sellers Source from China

Paytm, run by One97 Communications Ltd, is venturing into cross-border commerce, leveraging its investor China-based Alibaba’s platform and will be helping Indian sellers source from China. The cross-border plan will offer support of bonded warehouses in India and consolidation centres at the source countries. To begin with, the company is piloting with fashion accessories category and will add mobile accessories and home decor later.

With this initiative, Paytm will also support the Indian sellers in gaining extra capital to buy additional inventory to meet the anticipated demand through loans. It plans to connect 10,000 Indian SMEs with large Chinese suppliers by the end of this year, giving them access to more than 5 million products from China.